While many students celebrated the win by Boston College football on Saturday night or were already snuggled in bed after a few too many beverages, a number of students could be found in the Avalon Ballroom attending the sold-out performance of The Mars Volta. Falling on quite possibly the most exciting weekend of the fall, it was hard to tear away from campus, but entirely worth it for the hour of innovative music unparalleled by today's rock talent.
The Mars Volta may be best recognized by its prior musical ventures. Creators are guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and singer Cedric Zavala, both former members of the now defunct At the Drive In. At the Drive In pioneered a kinetic transformation of punk that blew up across MTV with its catchy single "One Armed Scissor" in the late '90s.
Nearly everyone in The Mars Volta is also in another band. Keyboardist Ikey Owens is in the Sublime knock-off Long Beach Dub All-Stars. Flea, the infamous bassist from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, plays bass on The Mars Volta album but does not tour with the group.
The band's release, De-Loused in the Comatorium, is essentially a narrative on Julio Venegas, a fellow artist who was friends with The Mars Volta's founders. The debut concept album was inspired by Venegas' suicide: Lyrics by Zavala tell a fantastical story he imagined his friend experienced while in a coma following an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Though arguably dark subject matter, the band's ultimate goal was to detail the accomplishments of the free spirit who had left such a void with his untimely death.
The tribute is one of the most provocative albums in recent years. The art-metal is some of the most creative progressive rock seen since the 1970s. Zavala belts out lines reminiscent of Robert Plant in Zeppelin's early years, while Rodriguez-Lopez violates the guitar in ways Eric Clapton would probably only do had he remained on cocaine. Filled with complex rhythms and altering foci, the sound twists the brain with its long-winded songs, most more than five minutes long.
Spring Break
